United Airlines Flying On Bald tires

On March 28, 2009, flying on United flight 302 out of Chicago, our flight was delayed nearly 4 hours waiting for a crew to change 2 bald tires on the air craft's left side main landing gear. This, after we had boarded the plane.

First, it's great that someone had the sense not to let the air craft take off, but the real problem is "why the tires were left to get to that state in the first place?" I would think that tires are checked and maintained long before potentially taking off or landing with a hundred or more passenger lives at stake. It pisses me off that the tires were not checked and maintained before the plane was due to be in service. It seems to me that something as critical as this, should not be left to the last minute! I shutter to think that we were all "this close" to being at risk.

The next issue is why it took 4 hours to change the tires! Apparently, not enough ground personnel; in fact it seemed as though United employees were purposefully moving slowly in order to send management the message that they control customer service, and thus, the customer experience....

fyi - this was only the end, of my horrible experience flying United this weekend.